Are puberty blockers just like the pill?

[mach2]

And yet still, conservative voices in the UK and abroad are fighting, with worrying levels of success, against it – to me, puberty blockers are in the same bracket as the contraceptive pill, entirely suitable for young people with proper medical supervision.

https://metro.co.uk/2023/09/28/we-accept-teenagers-taking-the-pill-but-not-puberty-blockers-why-19564554/

I can think of one difference...

I'm not sure why we should pay any attention to a prominent trans activist, who seems to stay strangely silent whenever there is talk about a rapist suddenly deciding he is trans.

Oh please.

So, so many words, all just saying ‘I have not read the clinical studies. I do not accept scientific and biological reality’.

‘Puberty blockers’ aka drugs developed to treat other ( real) medical conditions may suppress some of the secondary sexual characteristics which begin to develop in Adolescence. They cannot address the truth buried in the bone which has already started to grow the wide shoulders and long limbs, or to address the differentiated genitalia which are present at birth in virtually every baby.
Do they address the hormonal differences which seem to influence emotions and behaviour? Time will tell, I suppose.

Thankyou Mach2, for the link to this depressing, ill-considered piece…

“Modern studies suggest that [puberty blockers] increase the wellbeing of those who need it”

No reference for those studies obviously, anyone know what the author is referring to??

Later in the article, the author seems upset that, in line with Cass, the NHS will only prescribe puberty blockers as part of a clinical trial - yet surely this is the best way to actually monitor the impact? It’s almost as if it would be better not to know….

The editor needs to up their game if they want the Metro to be seen as anything other than a comic

I'm so sick of their use of the phrase "safe" in this issue.

Has the contraceptive pill ever been properly researched and have the long term effects of its usage been made known?

If yes I think we have our answer.

The pill suppresses the fertility of a girl or woman who would otherwise be ovulating, for as long as she takes it. Its effects can be remarkably short-lived, as we know from the fact that it is possible to conceive within days of stopping it, or even in rare cases if you miss one or two.

Puberty blockers prevent children of either sex from becoming fertile in the first place and we don't know what happens when they stop taking them because it is in almost 100% cases a one way trip to taking cross sex hormones and continuing transition.

So not even remotely similar then.

These awful, unqualified people pontificating about medical treatments for children, in order to uphold the concept of a 'trans child' to justify their own behaviour.

Of course, the Metro won't allow any comments, will it? Therse people have no conscience.

And Ugla Stefania calling themself a feminist is utterly risible 🤣

Wasn't it Ugla, in the form of 'Owl' as in Fox and Owl, who made that embarrassing film? Absolutely riddled with stereotypes, with, if memory serves me, Ugla, a transwoman, fulfilling the role of being pushed to the ground by a big, strong transman.

What would a trans woman know about the pill, anyway?

I assume Ugla is not a GP or a gynaecologist.

I don't get why certain activists are determined they want to potentially cause harm to the people they are saying they want to protect. They should be the people wanting to ensure its safe.

That's as relevant as saying we give antibiotics to teens so why not puberty blockers. The pill prevents conception. puberty blockers prevent puberty. Having "prevent' in both sentences doesn't actually create an equivalency.

'It prevents, for example, young trans girls from growing a beard and their voice dropping, or trans boys from growing bigger breasts and hips – which for cis people is a very normal part of growing up, but for many trans or non-binary people it is a source of severe distress.'

So is the proposal that we have 'nonbinary' children who need to be put on puberty blockers, now?

In the case of this activist and from the many articles they've written, they want to trans as many people as possible.

'to me, [a completely unqualified person who is male-bodied and therefore with no experience of having a female reproductive system, or the reasons for or effects of taking the pill] puberty blockers are in the same bracket as the contraceptive pill, entirely suitable for young people with proper medical supervision. '

There, I've added context to your completely unqualified opinion, pet.

Of course not. The pill is reversible once you come off it. Puberty blockers are permanent.

More grim reading.

Do these people even think before they speak with such conviction about such obvious misinformation?

It seems Ugla is suggesting 'nonbinary' young people may require puberty blockers.

Ugla even thinks that people with differences of sexual development might need puberty blockers. I'm not sure I see the logic, there.

'What is it about improving the quality of life for trans, intersex, or non-binary young people through treatment'

Flashbacks to slightly too many conversations with men of which the central message was 'why aren't you just on the pill then'.

I know that's not what Ugla is on about, really. But no acknowledgement of the fact that puberty blockers halt normal development in children, which is a huge fucking deal, and the numbers involved are in absolute terms small, due to the serious nature of the intervention and the lack of evidence When last measured I think there were around 1700 live prescriptions a year of puberty blockers. I assume that was before Keira Bell.

The idea that these drugs to artificially crush development are in any way a sensible response to adolescents registering intense distress at the onset of an otherwise entirely normal puberty is still - sorry - fucking batshit to me.

https://www.ipso.co.uk/arbitration/participating-publications/

It seems that while Metro is regulated by IPSO, metro.co.uk is not.

'Care for young people, no matter what it is, should be in the hands of young people, their families and their doctors.'

In that order, eh? You're inching closer to the Action for Trans Health Madifesto, Ugla.

It bever stops does it? What else should 'young people', ie 12 year olds, be deciding for themselves?

Fortunately, this narrative that adult men keep trotting out - that 12-year-olds should be able to do what they like, is wearing a bit thin everywhere.

The problem for "non binary children" is that unless you want to keep taking puberty blockers forever and remain in the body of a child when you're old enough to drive, vote or buy alcohol and all your friends are doing these things, eventually you need to either stop taking puberty blockers and hope you go through natural puberty, or you need to start taking cross sex hormones to more resemble the opposite sex, because from puberty onwards all humans go down one path of development or another in a very obviously binary manner, even if they identify as non binary.

The fact that non binary males tend to grow beards and just change their pronouns whereas non binary females tend to wear binders, get mastectomies and cut their hair short shows that "they" see male as the default.

Just off the top of my head

The pill is reversible once you come off it

The pill has been in use, tested, side effects reported for nearly 70 years so is a well understood prescription that is as safe as possible

The pill is used for what it was designed for, puberty blockers for trans children are off-label prescription

There are still controls over prescription of the pill - for younger teens it would be prescribed for a medical necessity (i.e. heavy periods), or, I'd like to think, if purely for contraception would be subject to some scrutiny - i.e. if a 12 year old rocked up to their GP asking for it I'd hope a few questions would be asked. It's not as if it's available in a sweetie jar in a pharmacy for children to help themselves

slightly off topic, but according to wikipedia, which I thought was supposed to be very regulated on contentious topics, puberty blockers are apparently safe and reversible.

Ffs shouldn’t be allowed

Trans people like Jazz Jennings have ended with no sexual feelings and a lack of penile tissue to create a neo-vagina thanks to puberty blockers.

TRAs are unwilling to admit the damage they do to people who actually want to transition too.

I just don't get why they deliberately lie to people just like themselves, unless of course they want more people to transition (no matter how butchered their bodies are).